


Those Days Are Gone

by toosolidcuuj



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Grief, Moving On, takes place between eps 3 & 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 20:51:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4976116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toosolidcuuj/pseuds/toosolidcuuj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aang came out of the iceberg only to discover that he’d lost everything. Katara pulled him out and discovered that she had everything to gain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Days Are Gone

Aang awoke, as he always did, with the sun. He airlifted himself off Appa’s flank and looked to the sky. Today would be a great day for gliding, he could tell. Maybe if they could get camp packed up soon enough they’d have time for a quick flight. He turned toward the dying campfire and said, “Hey, Gyatso -”

\- only to be confronted with the image of a sleeping Katara and Sokka and the sudden remembrance that his mentor was dead. A quiet keen escaped the young airbender, and he staggered back against Appa, sliding to the ground.

For one brief moment, he had really believed he was about to see Gyatso’s face again. In the haze that accompanied waking, he’d believed that his people’s genocide had never happened, and that everyone he’d ever known and loved was still alive. Remembering what had really happened turned up emotions nearly as raw as the moment he’d first found out, and hot tears escaped as he curled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head into folded arms.

Intense longing and regret coursed through him, and he replayed his last moments with Gyatso over and over. How could he have possibly known he’d be seeing him for the last time? Why did his last memories of him have to be tainted with the panic of having to take on an avatar’s responsibilities and the pain of their separation? A separation that, due to his folly, he had made permanent. He was never going to see Gyatso again.

He could not - would not - compare the Gyatso he knew in life to the Gyatso he had seen in death. He would not think of the fleshless visage that would never again smile at him with a caring gaze. He would not think of the red-dressed bones that surrounded him, nor of how desperate Gyatso must have been in his last moments of life.

All he could do was inwardly scream _why wasn’t I there?_ as he broke into a fresh round of sobbing.

A small warm body curled up against his side, and Aang broke his guarded position to meet the lemur’s wide gaze.

“Hey, Momo,” he said thickly. “Did I wake you up?”

He looked over to Katara and Sokka and was surprised to find Katara, at least, still asleep. They must have been tired after riding the hopping llamas yesterday.

His attention came back to the lemur as Momo climbed up Aang’s arm and settled onto his chest, with his tail curled around the back of his neck. Aang wiped his eyes with one hand while the other stroked Momo’s fur.

“Hey, little buddy,” he murmured to the lemur, who met his gaze before nuzzling against his chin.

Aang was more than happy to accept comfort from the little animal. It wasn’t Gyatso’s embrace, but it would do. It would certainly do.

* * *

Katara awoke, as she hadn’t until recently, to the sound of laughter. Aang was playing with Momo, and his seemingly carefree antics made her smile.

He noticed her sitting up and said, “Oh good, you’re awake! Let’s start packing up camp. If we leave in the next hour, we might catch a hog monkey before sundown!”

Katara smiled at his enthusiasm. As he started telling her about which parts of a hog monkey were best to hold on to and how they’d have a competition to see who could ride one the longest, she couldn’t help but be a little excited, too. His exuberance was downright contagious, and she couldn’t remember being this happy since before her mom died.

Being with Aang was like … well, like being free. Free from the war and all the grief and responsibilities that came with it. That was the world he’d grown up in, the one he was sharing with her and Sokka, who’d never known anything like it before. With Aang, she saw what the world could be like, once the war ended.

She knew their journey together wouldn’t always be fun and games, and that they’d soon have to refocus on their journey to the North Pole, but for now she was happy to let Aang take her on his crazy expeditions. She needed the break from a world of war, and though he never said anything to her directly, she could sense that Aang did, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Now would be a great time to remind you that Bryke originally conceived Momo as Gyatso's reincarnation, right?
> 
> Originally posted on tumblr on 12/16/2013.


End file.
